# MP3 player troubles/recommendations



## Sandstone-Shadow (Jun 25, 2010)

So I currently have a Zune mp3 player. I play it through my car radio so on my way home from a friend's house, I turned it on and set it up; it worked then. On my way home, I realized that the screen wasn't lighting up when I touched the keypad. Just a little bit later I realized why; no matter how I tried, the keypad wouldn't respond at all.

It still doesn't work; I can't change songs or change the volume, or even turn it off properly. I can't think of any reason why the keypad would stop working. It was leaning against my leg during the drive when it stopped working, but I can't imagine that it was in any position to be crushed or anything.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this something I should be asking on a forum specific to the Zune, or is it basically just broken?

And if it is broken, well, I guess I'd ask if anyone has any recommendations for a new mp3 player. xD


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## spaekle (Jun 25, 2010)

Have you tried holding the back-arrow button and up on the directional pad? Mine's bugged out before and that's worked. 

Besides that, all I can think of to do (if you haven't done it already) is just let it run out of batteries and charge it back up, and see if that works. 

If you really can't get it to work... I dunno, I've only had experience with a couple different iPods and a Zune. I'm pretty happy with my Zune, but in the event it ever screws over I'd like to try a Sansa or something that doesn't force you to use Windows (which really is the only thing I dislike about the Zune). All of my iPods randomly stopped working for no conceivable reason, and iTunes was bad about suddenly deciding it wanted to wipe my iPod's memory. :|


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## Sandstone-Shadow (Jun 25, 2010)

_Directional_ pad. I knew there was a better name for it than keypad. Yeah, I've tried that; that's how I turn it off, but the up on the directional pad doesn't do anything anymore. =/

I suppose I have no other option. xD Doesn't it figure that for once, it had a fully charged battery. Oh well, shouldn't take too long to drain if it's constantly on.

Hmm, I've heard a lot about Sansa, or at least a lot of people recommending it. I'll have to check it out. I like my Zune, but it annoys me to no end that I haven't been able to log into the marketplace for months, and despite a multitude of people having the same problem on their forums, nothing has been done to fix it. =/ It really annoys me, I still have money on that account that I could spend.


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## Kratos Aurion (Jun 25, 2010)

If you have an older MP3 player lying around or want to purchase a cheaper one, try looking at Rockbox. Free firmware that runs on a lot of stuff and is generally awesome.

Otherwise, I recommend one of Creative's Zen series products. Sansa is also okay; some of their older ones had weird problems with whitescreening, but I imagine the newer ones are fine (and the one I had that whitescreened I just overwrote with Rockbox anyway).


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## Storm Earth and Fire (Jun 28, 2010)

I have a Zen MX and all I can say is the software sucks and the earphones were too big. But the former is only an issue if you want to make playlists, otherwise you can bypass using the software, while the latter is only an issue because I have tiny ears. Also takes forever to load a long playlist, but that's my own fault for setting up a long playlist.

Otherwise, the player sounds good, is reasonably priced (around US$80 for 8GB), and the memory can be expanded with SD cards. Have yet to run into any crippling problems that updating the firmware didn't solve.


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## Sandstone-Shadow (Jun 29, 2010)

Spaekle Oddberry said:


> Besides that, all I can think of to do (if you haven't done it already) is just let it run out of batteries and charge it back up, and see if that works.


Good news, this worked! =D I have no idea how/why but I'm satisfied. =3 

Though this Rockbox thing sounds interesting. I may look more into that in the future. Thanks for the replies, guys. =)


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## spaekle (Jun 29, 2010)

Rockbox doesn't work on Zune though, because Microsoft is no fun.  You'd probably have an easier time jailbreaking Alcatraz. :(

Though I did try it out on the one iPod I have that isn't totally dead yet and it's pretty cool. Very customizeable.

Good about your Zune! I figured it was probably just locked up or something.


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